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THE-STAR.CO.KE Monday, November 20, 2017 14 NEWS BUSINESS ABEL MUHATIA / e official Google Android app store was invaded by malicious applica- tions, posing a threat to its users last week, cyber security firm ESET has said. According to the firm, six of the eight ap- plications included clear android (Dhimitri Shi- pov), Mex tools (A Goncharenko), Cleaner for Android (Roza Peshkova), World News pro, and World News by (V.Stolpovskii), which were all legitimate-looking, multi-stage Android mal- ware, and with delayed onset of malicious ac- tivity. Google has since removed all eight apps from its store. None of the apps, with advanced anti-de- tection features, had reached more than a few hundred downloads. After being downloaded and installed, the apps tended not to request any suspicious permissions and even mimic the activity the user expects them to exhibit. Once installed the applications behaved like a typical malicious app with potential to pres- ent the user with fake login forms to steal cre- dentials or credit card details. One of the malicious apps downloaded its final payload using the bit.ly URL shortener. Along with this, the malicious app also de- crypts and executes its first-stage payload which in turn decrypts and executes the sec- ond-stage payload, which was then stored in the assets of the initial app downloaded from Google Play. e steps remained invisible to the user and served as obfuscator measures. To stay protected, ESETS has advised us- ers to check app ratings and comments, pay attention to what permissions they grant to apps, and run a quality security solution on their mobile devices before downloading any application. HACKING TECHNOLOGY IN RETAIL Online shopping craze 14% up since 2014 commodities review ALY KHAN SATCHU e genie is out of the bottle A man views mobile phones on the Jumia site.Consumers are increasingly adapting to an online shopping culture with 17 per cent of shoppers buying electronics through the online platforms /VICTOR IMBOTO ere is rising usage of social media platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram as alternative online market points Online shopping in the country is up 14 per cent since 2014 due to growing internet usage, a new report from Goo- gle shows. e report, Consumer Connected Study 2017 indicates that the rise is from the three per cent recorded in 2014 to the current 17 per cent. Internet usage is on a growing curve with 53 per cent of Kenyans over 16 years able to go online. is is up from 49 per cent in 2016, making Kenya the third largest coun- try in Africa with more people online compared to the leading South Africa at 65 per cent and Nigeria at 63 per cent. While there is growth, Google’s Af- platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram as alternative online market points contributing to at least 15 per cent of the shopping. Other sites include Rupu and the yet to be unveiled Masoko by Safar- icom scheduled to be introduced be- fore the year ends. e research firm notes that online shopping in the country is largely driven by online ad- vertisement, referrals and availability of products selling at crazy discounts. However, compared to the global rate of online shopping standing at 59 per cent, the consumer connected study shows that Kenya is 36 per cent behind the global rate, an indication that there is a long way to go. Lack of trust, shipping costs, slow delivery, authenticity of the products, fear of payments methods and lack of knowledge to make orders are some of the top reasons given for slow growth. ABEL MUHATIA @Abelmuhatia More Business news on our website. Scan this quick response code using your smartphone rica PR lead Dorothy Ooko noted that most online users are inexperienced with most of them assessing their dig- ital skills as fair or poor. “Despite the strong use and high importance of the Internet, many on- line users still assess their own digital skills as fair or poor. However, digital skills are increasingly becoming a key success factor in business and private life. e share of inexperienced users shows the high demand for digital training in Kenya,” she said. Online shopping growth comes at a time when an influx of online mar- keting sites in the country is on the rise with Jumia and Kilimall being the most sought-after online shopping sites at 38 per cent and 22 per cent, respectively, according to recent find- ings by digital marketing research firm e-Ensures. ere is rising usage of social media Google Play Store invaded by malware, cyber-security firm warns I t is authority that provokes revolution. is occurs when a feeling of impunity takes root among the elite: We are allowed anything, we can do anything. is is a delusion, but it rests on a certain rational foundation. For a while it does in- deed look as if they can do whatever they want. Scandal after scandal and illegality after illegality go unpunished. e people remain silent...ey are afraid and do not yet feel their own strength. At the same time, they keep a detailed account of the wrongs, which at one particular moment are to be added up. e choice of that moment is the greatest riddle of history - Ryszard Kapuściński, Shah of Shahs. You will recall that only last year, in a speech before the African Union in 2016, Mugabe said he would remain at the helm “until God says: Come.” What is clear is that an old man’s mind and political antennae were properly scrambled by an ambitious wife (Gucci Grace), a wife who was always untena- ble and whose political longevity was entirely correlated to the presence of her Husband. e fast moving events in Harare will culminate in the dis- missal of President Robert Gabriel Mugabe and the re-insta- tement of the Vice President he fired, Emmerson Mnangagwa. Mnangagwa aka e Crocodile, “A crocodile patiently waits for his target,, pretending to be a rock, At times you think he doesn’t react, or doesn’t have any solution to what is ha- ppening. He doesn’t show irritation until the optimal moment and then he strikes. And when he does, he doesn’t miss his target”. My Friend Herve Gogo rebutted Reuters, saying, ‘’e analogy to Ceausescu is misplaced. is isn’t a revolu- tion but just an aggiornamento inside ZANU-PF, and everyone is currently negotiating with Mugabe.’’ e pictures from Harare on Saturday spoke to a ‘’People Power’’ which is a genie which will be difficult if not impossible to put back in its bottle. “It’s like Christmas,” said one marcher, Fred Mubay to Reuters. He had a warning for whoever takes over Zimbabwe: “If the next leader does the same, we are going to come out again.” I agree with US assistant secretary of state for African affairs Yamamoto who said, “It’s a transition to a new era for Zimbabwe, that’s really what we’re hoping for.” e military which launched this decapitation are certainly set to shape the outcome but now have a Tiger by the Tail. Interestingly, the Military have been walking on linguistic egg- shells and side-stepping the word ‘’coup’’ with finesse. Zimbabwe’s economy has fallen to the 20th biggest in sub-Saharan Africa from 10th when President Robert Mugabe came into power almost four decades ago (Bloomberg). e economy has halved in size since 2000. As of October, the country owed lenders including the IMF, World Bank and African Development Bank about $9 billion, according to the finance ministry. Hyperinflation peaked at about 500 billion percent at the end of 2008, according to the International Monetary Fund, leading to the nation abandoning its own currency in favor of a basket of foreign exchange including the South African rand, the dollar, the euro and the pound, as well as so-called bond notes printed by the government. After two and half years of deflation, consumer prices started rising again in February, driven by a shortage of cash and higher food costs and its difficult to see how another bout of hyper inflation is avoided. e dislocation in the Economy is evidenced in the price of BITCOIN which jumped as high as $13,499, almost double the rate at which it trades in international markets, according to prices cited on Golix’s website. Further evidence of economic disequilibrium is seen in the performance of the Stock Market. Before a correction at the end of the week. the Zimbabwe Industrial Index had jumped +390 per cent year to date and the MSCI Zimbabwe Index +420 per cent. e country’s sha- res are trading at a 475 per cent premium to cash, according to an Exotix analysis of Old Mutual data. at difference has to collapse for there to be any chance of Zimbabwe norma- lising. is difference started to collapse on Friday with the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange dropping $1,5 billion in value and the industrial index shedding 11.32 per cent. What is clear is that Zimbabwe is entering a New Normal and that in the medium term Zimbabwe has the potential to be one of the fastest growing economies in Africa. e People want to grab that opportunity with both hands. If Zanu-PF want to be part of that new more optimistic Future they need to invite the Opposition into Government, look for a big cash Boost from the international Community in order to stabilise the ‘’now’’. Zimbabweans have only known one Leader and that Leader is now gone. Aly-Khan is a financial analyst
